Code 61

Chapter 6

I was starting to wish Jongin teleported us to wherever they were taking me. As the car coasted through the empty streets at breakneck speed, my breakfast threatened to rise past my throat. My knuckles were white from trying to hold on to the dashboard as if I was holding to dear life.

It was a miracle I hadn't singed the interior of the car yet, although from the crisp scent of burning leather I had a hunch it wouldn't be long.

Kyungsoo was too focused on driving to notice I was already green with nausea. Sehun's silence was surprising, and a glance at the rearview mirror confirmed my assumptions that he was using his abilities to speed us up because there was no way a car could drive as far as we were going now. His eyes were glowing sapphire, his gaze unfocused. If it wasn't for the smirk on his face, I would've thought he was a statue.

Any signs of civilisation had drifted past the open car window about half an hour ago. I had stopped asking where we were heading after the first few times of getting non-responses. Sehun's smirk wasn't giving away anything, nor was Minseok's quiet demeanour. Kyungsoo was even harder to read.

We stopped in the middle of nowhere, far from the deserted highway but close enough to still hear the occasional ten-wheeler moving past. I had no idea where we were, never having been outside the city at all. The only certainty I had was that we were a great distance from Seoul. Away from anyone who could report our activity and had me locked away again. Away from the law.

"Out," Kyungsoo commanded as soon as we stopped, unlocking all the doors with a click. Dry grass crunched beneath my shoes when I stepped out and the light touch of breeze cleansed my nose of the burnt leather smell. It was a balmy spring day, as if the weather was still reluctant to welcome the arrival of summer heat. All around me, the fields stretched on to the edges of my vision.

I wrinkled my nose. It was a good thing I wasn't allergic to pollen or I would've been in a sneezing fit by now. Those few instances that I did usually left something razed to the ground. I wasn't keen on doing that in front of the people who took me in — not when I still had a lot to prove. The desperation was making my hands shake no matter how much I willed them to stop.

"You already know how to summon your fire. You can command it. You actually have a lot of control, but you easily get distracted as what Minseok-hyung said," Kyungsoo said, sitting on the hood of the car. He glanced at Sehun with a barely perceptible nod then back to me. "If someone attacks you, it's instinct to respond to it."

An invisible wall slammed into me with such a force I staggered backwards. It was as if my fire had a life of its own, surging towards Sehun like a towering wave of red and blue flames near invisible in the daylight. I watched as wind swirled before the flame, a tornado against a fiery tsunami, sucking in every lick of flame. It was as if my own strength was sucked along with it.

"Is that all you got?" he taunted.

I looked up, meeting Sehun's gaze. Heat crackled in the air. The hair on my arms rose, anticipating the surge of power in my veins. I could feel my blood boiling like magma beneath my skin.

A spear of blue flame left my hand in one flick and darted at Sehun. It rippled before an invisible wall of air, dissipating. His glowing sapphire eyes met mine with a challenge. "Not bad, but you're gonna have to try harder than that. Let me show you."

One moment, I was prepared for his attack, the next I was clawing at my throat as I struggled to breathe.

My throat tightened. I was feeling light-headed. Coloured spots danced over my closed eyelids.

I had no doubt he was more capable than I was. Sehun carried himself with the air of someone who had spent most of his life using his abilities. He wasn't afraid of it like I was of mine. After all, he didn't burn down an entire block along with his parents. He didn't spend every day after that afraid that he'd lose control again. That he wouldn't be able to stop himself.